Internet funny man and political commentator Çetin Sadeli has used a Turkish Cypriot wedding to protest the latest government-imposed rise in the cost of bottled gas.
Foregoing the tradition of pinning money or gold on the married couple Sadeli turned up at the outdoor wedding of Mehmet and Eda Karagözlü with a large bottle of gas as his wedding gift.
Accompanied by a man playing a traditional Turkish davul [drum], Sadeli approached the stage where the couple and the bridesmaids were standing as if he was going to pin money.
Instead, to the amusement of all, Sadeli hung the bottle, which had a label “Altın” [gold] on it, around the bemused groom’s neck, as a commentator told the couple and guests “Bottled gas worth the same as gold from Çetin Sadeli”.
Afterwards, Sadeli said he’d done the stunt “to protest the latest price increases.”
Bottled gas is a vital source of energy for all households in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus.
The latest price hike of 17 TL, which was announced by the government on 25 August, follows another increase in May of this year, when prices went up by 5 TL.
The government had rejected industry calls for a 30 TL increase in this latest round. Yet the 17 TL on all bottle sizes amounts to a staggering 25% increase in the cost of gas since December 2020.
KKTC’de tüp gaza yapılan zamları protesto eden Çetin Sadeli, gelin ve damada büyük boy bir tüp gaz taktı. Via @Giynik_gazetesi pic.twitter.com/2xaMw3vwce
— (@sefakarahasan) September 5, 2021
At the end of last year, a standard 10kg bottle of gas in North Cyprus was 85 TL. It now costs 107 TL. The retail price of a large 45 kg of bottled gas, used by most households, now stands at 422 TL – the same price as a 22-carat gold bracelet.
Sadeli has become an internet phenomenon following a series of hilarious video clips as an independent political figure calling out the corrupt and inept ways of politicians in the TRNC. He has also appeared in multiple online comedy adverts for various TRNC brands that have attracted hundreds of thousands of views in North Cyprus and Turkey.
